When people find out I used to work at Chick-fil-A, they tell me how they like to say “thank-you” over and over again so that the CFA employees have to repeat “my pleasure.” What amuses me is how they seem to think they are the only ones that have ever done that.

CFA employees work hard to develop the “my pleasure” reflex. Think about it; the average employee is trying rewire their brain to reverse 15 to 20-something years of instruction from their parents. If you think that’s easy, you’ve never worked at CFA. As a result, “my pleasure” tends to come out during non-work situations such as when the tollbooth guy thanks you for your payment. Even worse, sometimes we forget how normal people respond to expressions of gratitude and stare blankly at the person across from us. Fortunately, now there’s a Disney song for it. While CFA employees are not the broken records some guests think, saying “my pleasure” does become semi-subconsciously done.

Clearly, Truitt Cathy was on to something that hasn’t been fully understood yet. Exactly what is it about hearing a CFA employee say “my pleasure” that gives so much entertainment to our guests? Experimental research has not been completed, but from my various conversations I suspect it stems from the theory that they are somehow annoying us. As if it were like TPing someone’s yard, or using a plastic arachnid to scare them, or that game where kids try to trick each other to say a certain color. In actuality, it’s just par for the course. It’s so normal that, yeah we know what they’re doing, but like the Queen’s Guard we’re unruffled. To be blunt, we don’t care how many times you say “thank-you” (though we prefer to hear it at least once). You’re not annoying; you’re just unoriginal.

Along the same line, question I was frequently asked is “Is it actually your pleasure or are you saying that because you have to?” Technically the answer is both. As a general rule, I enjoyed serving the guests who came in. We had some great regular guests whom I still miss. Was it always a pleasure to serve everyone who came in? Nope. And those who weren’t, typically didn’t say thank-you, so mendacious statements were not an issue.

In conclusion, if saying “thank-you” over and over again so that CFA employees will repeat “my pleasure” makes you happy, by all means continue. In the words of Lina Lamont, “If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain’t been in vain for nothin’.”

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, mostly academic, but I’ve sneaked in a few fun books too. I’m curious about the books that y’all enjoy. So grab a) the book you are currently reading or b) the nearest book or c) your favorite book and turn to page 37 and post the first complete sentence that starts on (or after) line 13.

I’ll start: A) “Restoration of the cease-fire line and restoration of cease-firing and then have a fact-finding commission.” From Crisis by Henry Kissinger. This sentence is from a transcript of one of many phone calls between Dr. Kissinger and the Soviet ambassador on the morning of October 6, 1973 (Yom Kippur War).

After the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, several of the players mentioned how they watched the Rocky movies in order to get pumped for their games. Although I knew the basic storyline and had watched the training montage from the original film, I had not seen any of the films. Based on the Cubs’ recommendation and the fact that the American Film Institute ranks Rocky the 2nd best sports movie of all time, I decided to watch it. It’s rated PG; how bad could it be?